Sunday, December 16, 2007

Alex O'Loughlin speaks to Australian Newspaper Sydney Morning Hearld

We have all been hoping that our Aussie and our Brit would be able to return home for the holiday season. Alex & his delicious girlfriend, Holly Valance, did make the trip back to Australia. Jason Dohring & his lovely wife, Lauren, plan to travel there also to celebrate the New Year with Alex. Can you imagine how much fun it would be to ring in 2008 with them?!?! From what I'm hearing, Sophia is still here in the US.

I've gone to the future to get this for you. *grin* Sorry, couldn't resist since it's December 17th in Australia. Alex has been interviewed by Scott Ellis from one of his home newspapers ~ The Sydney Morning Hearld. Funny.... almost every article throws in a description of Alex puffing away on a cigar.

Great feature! We've seen and heard about Alex's playful side. In this, he reveals more of his philosophical, thoughtful outlook on life.

Alex O'Loughlin is sitting in his make-up trailer, alternating puffs on a cigar with a serious discussion about spiritual belief and human nature.

"I think really if there's nothing out there in the dark, then once we're dead we're just dead and all religion, all spiritual belief, is redundant," O'Loughlin said. "So there has to be something else, or what's the point? And if we accept that there has to be something ... then there can be anything."

"Mick St John essentially is a human who denies the monster within," O'Loughlin said. "He became a vampire against his will and then became a private investigator because he feels that each predator he gets rid of, each monster he kills or has put away gets him closer to the humanity within himself that he has lost."

"He's a very complex character to play because really he hates what he is and hates himself, and that's put him right on the edge."

Also pushing him to the edge is his relationship with Beth Turner (played by Sophia Myles), a reporter who discovers his secret.

As a child, Beth was saved by St John and was the first step on his search for redemption. Now grown up and igniting passions he's tried to deny, she is both the one woman he could love and the one woman he shouldn't.

"What saving [Beth] signifies to him was so enormous and now that she's come of age and he's starting to find himself attracted to her ... oh man ... he wants her to call him Dad and he wants her to call him Baby ... it's all messed up."

"But that allows for some really dramatic twists and changes in the character that you just wouldn't see anywhere else."

"A big thing that comes up for me with this show and with this world is redemption," he said.

"At what point can we no longer be redeemed? And Mick's hoping the answer is never."